Daniel 12:4 NLT “But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase."
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Cuba is the first country in the world to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The country is also the first to eliminate the transfer of syphilis.
WHO officials say that the discovery means an end to the AIDS epidemic is possible and they expect more nations to seek to reach the status where transmission is eliminated in their country.
“Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible,” Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, said in a Tuesday press release. “This is a major victory in our long fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important step towards having an AIDS-free generation.”
The WHO defines elimination as reduction to a level that it no longer constitutes a public health problem. In 2013, only two babies were born in Cuba with HIV and only five with syphilis.
The WHO says that without treatment, a woman has up to a 45% risk of transmitting the virus to her child. The WHO is currently undergoing a worldwide program to eliminate transmission but are struggling to meet their goal of only 40,000 infections in 2015. The last reported total was 240,000 in 2013, a decrease of 160,000 from 2009.
